Weekly Update for October 3: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You

There hasn’t been a soignée blonde so flat-out hate-able since Gwyneth bitched about the burdens of motherhood. Welcome to the A-list, Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike! The tall, slender, Oxford-educated actress who made her feature film debut in Die Another Day in 2002 would have made a great Hitchcock obsession, pecked by birds or poked in the shower.

Pike escapes playing go-to girlfriend roles (Jack Reacher opposite Tom Cruise) to rule as the title anti-heroine in David Fincher’s highly anticipated adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s marriage-gone-wild thriller, which opens this Friday and premiered at the New York Film Festival. Flynn, a former journalist, also scripted, tweaking an ending that never quite satisfied on the page. (Thelma Adams)

When her husband (Anthony LaPaglia) of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson (Joan Allen) looks for batteries in the garage. Instead, she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It’s a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage. (Press materials)

Annabelle

John Form (Ward Horton) has found the perfect gift for his expectant wife, Mia (Annabelle Wallis) — a beautiful, rare vintage doll in a pure white wedding dress. But Mia’s delight with Annabelle doesn’t last long. On one horrific night, their home is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently attack the couple. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind. The cultists have conjured an entity so malevolent that nothing they did will compare to the sinister conduit to the damned that is now… Annabelle. (Press materials)

The Supreme Price (doc) – Directed by Joanna Lipper

In 1993 Nigeria elected M.K.O. Abiola as president in a historic vote that promised to end years of military dictatorship. Shortly after the election, Abiola was imprisoned as another military regime seized power, and his wife, Kudirat, took over the leadership of the pro-democracy movement, organizing strikes and marches and winning international attention for the Nigerian struggle. Because of this work, she, too, became a target and was assassinated in 1996. Director Joanna Lipper elegantly dovetails past and present as she tells this story through the eyes of Hafsat Abiola, who was about to graduate from Harvard when her mother was murdered. Her father died in prison two years later under mysterious circumstances. Determined not to let her parents’ democratic ideals die with them, Hafsat returns to Nigeria after years in exile and is at the forefront of a progressive movement to empower women and dismantle the patriarchal structure of Nigerian society. The Supreme Price provides an unprecedented look inside of Africa’s most populous nation, exposing the tumultuous, violent history of a deeply entrenched corrupt culture of governance where a tiny circle of political elites monopolize billions of dollars’ worth of oil revenue while the masses remain impoverished. (Press materials)

Georgiana Halmac turns 15 this winter. She lives with her six brothers and sisters in a social-housing condo on the outskirts of Bacau, Romania. Their mother Liliana was forced to leave her family behind to go to Turin, Italy, to earn money. She won’t be back before summer. During their mother’s absence, Georgiana has been catapulted into the role of head of the family, responsible for her siblings. Her adolescence is cut brutally short. Caught between puberty and responsibility, Georgiana moves ahead, improvising as she goes. Phone conversations with her mom are her only guidelines. Intimate scenes from the daily life of the seven siblings show us — in an uncensored, fly-on-the-wall style — how real events are experienced and interpreted with great imagination by the children. You can’t help being amazed by their ingenuity, while also realizing how precarious their daily equilibrium is. (Press materials)

A recently discovered cache of hundreds of personal letters, diaries, and photos belonging to the Nazi Gestapo chief seems to reveal a thoughtful, loving husband and devoted father to his daughter. The documents first found in the Himmler family house in 1945 were hidden in Tel Aviv for decades and eventually sold to the father of the Israeli documentary filmmaker Vanessa Lapa. Through readings of Himmler’s and his family’s most personal writings and rarely seen restored film footage from key German archives, Lapa has fashioned a fascinating case study: a portrait of the man responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Second World War who thought of himself in heroic terms. (Press materials)

They were known simply as “The Lost Boys.” Orphaned by the brutal civil war in Sudan that began in 1983, these young victims travelled as many as a thousand miles on foot in search of safety. Fifteen years later, a humanitarian effort would bring 3600 lost boys and girls to America. In The Good Lie, Philippe Falardeau (writer and director of the Oscar-nominated Foreign Language Film Monsieur Lazhar) brings the story of their survival and triumph to life. Sudanese actors Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal, and newcomer Nyakuoth Weil, many of whom were also children of war, star alongside Academy Award-winner Reese Witherspoon and Corey Stoll. (Press materials)

Men, Women & Children – Co-Written by Erin Cressida Wilson

Men, Women & Children follows the story of a group of high-school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the Internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives. The film attempts to stare down social issues such as video game culture, anorexia, infidelity, fame-hunting, and the proliferation of illicit material on the Internet. As each character and each relationship is tested, we are shown the variety of roads people choose — some tragic, some hopeful — as it becomes clear that no one is immune to this enormous social change that has come through our phones, our tablets, and our computers. (Press materials)

The Hero of Color City – Co-Written by Jess Kedward and Kirsty Peart

Each night, when Ben falls asleep, his Crayons’ magical Crayon Box transports them to Color City, a world of dazzling hues, soaring fantasy, and the whimsy of childhood. When Yellow (Christina Ricci) is accidentally left behind in Ben’s room, she awakens two Unfinished Drawings: King Scrawl, a huge monster, and Gnat, Scrawl’s sidekick. They follow Yellow to Color City and claim the enchanted Rainbow Waterfall and all of its color for themselves. Soon Color City will fade, and our lovable crayon characters will disappear. It’s up to Yellow and her pals, Blue (Wayne Brady), Green (Jess Harnell), Red (Rosie Perez), and the twins, Black (David Kaye) and White, to save the day. Meeting with fantastical creatures and fun adventures along the way, Yellow discovers she has more courage than she knew and learns to believe in herself and to count on the support of her friends. (Press materials)

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

Guardians of the Galaxy – Co-Written by Nicole PerlmanSex Tape – Co-Written by Kate AngeloDawn of the Planet of the Apes – Co-Written by Amanda Silver